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Candidate Janine Campbell says bomb threat closed a polling site during Christina School Board election; urges policy changes
Summary
During public comment, candidate Janine Campbell said a bomb threat briefly shut down the polling site at Maurice Pritchard Academy on May 13, 2025, and criticized lack of timely notifications and failure to extend polling hours; an educator, Stacy Perry, corroborated concerns and urged improved communication policies.
During public comment at the Wilmington City Council meeting, Janine Campbell — a candidate in the Christina School District school-board election — described a May 13 incident she said closed a polling site at Maurice Pritchard Academy when a bomb threat prompted an evacuation and K-9 search. Campbell said she and campaign staff were unaware the site was closed while they were encouraging voters to go to the location.
“On May 13 around 01:14PM, the Christina school board members were notified that there was a bomb threat that was called into Maurice Pritchard Academy, one of the designated polling sites,” Campbell said. She said the site was evacuated, K-9 units searched the building and officials declared it clear at about 4:15 p.m., and that she learned about the threat two days later from a concerned person rather than from election officials or the school district.
Campbell said the closure caused voting to be shut down at Pritchett for one to two hours and urged council support for clearer, transparent policies requiring candidates and affected voters to be notified and for lost voting time to be made up. “This is not just about one election. This is about the trust we place in our institutions to ensure every vote counts,” she said, adding that she considered the incident “voter suppression.”
Stacy Perry, an educator who spoke after Campbell, said she supported Campbell’s account and urged improved communication and policies to protect voters’ access in such circumstances. Perry noted the importance of timely information for communities that already face barriers to voting, such as transportation and economic hardship.
Council members did not take immediate formal action during the meeting; the item was part of public comment. Campbell asked for council support for clearer, transparent policies governing notification when polling sites are closed and for lost voting hours to be made up; council members did not record a follow-up assignment during the meeting transcript.
